bad linebreaks

[Jim Nagel]

I raised a report on the bug-tracker about really bad linebreaks that
Netsurf sometimes commits.

This isn't a new thing. I'm using #4316 but fault has existed since
many many versions ago and as far as I know has never been reported.

My theory is that the Netsurf code thinks it's OK to start a new line
when text reaches nearly the edge of the frame and that it can perform
the break not only at a wordspace but also at an HTML tag, i.e. at "<"
or ">" or "&xxx;". (Hmm, what about &nbsp; ?)

You too often see a word like "John&rsquo;s" with the apostrophe-s or
just the -s on the next line. Or a split in the middle of something
like "<i>x</i>²=4<i>y</i>". Or "(<a href=...> blabla</a>)"
can leave the opening or closing parenthesis on a different line. Or
worse.

It obviously depends on the width of the window, so you might have to
drag the width to see it happen (presuming of course that it's not a
fixed-width page). Try a news page from http://theregister.co.uk as
an example.

Anybody concur with me?

[cj]

Post by Jim Nagel
Anybody concur with me?

Yes - this has been present since the dark ages. I thought it had
been reported many years ago.

[Steve Fryatt]

On 27 Apr, cj wrote in message

Post by Jim Nagel
Anybody concur with me?

Yes - this has been present since the dark ages. I thought it had been
reported many years ago.

I'm fairly sure (without going to check) that it's both known about and has
been stated that it is being ignored until the component responsible is
replaced as part of the road to Javascript. I'm guessing the layout engine,
but I could easily be wrong on that -- as Chris says, it has been many
years.

[Jim Nagel]

Steve Fryatt wrote on 27 Apr:
[re longstanding flaw where Netsurf thinks it's OK to break a line at
a tag or an &xyz; entity]

Post by Steve Fryatt
I'm fairly sure (without going to check) that it's both known about
and has been stated that it is being ignored until the component
responsible is replaced as part of the road to Javascript. I'm
guessing the layout engine, but I could easily be wrong on that -- as
Chris says, it has been many years.

Fingers crossed for a cure in the forthcoming release!

[Richard Porter]

Post by Jim Nagel
Anybody concur with me?

Yes I've raised bug reports about it in the past.